Where ISN'T Jeff Bezos these days and what isn't he doing?
Michael Calderone tweeted this photo (credit: @jehld) of Jeff Bezos and Jason Rezaian before JB brought them home to the U.S. on a private plane -- story at CNN.
Headline: "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, quietly traveled to Germany this week to personally escort Post reporter Jason Rezaian home to the United States" on a private plane from Germany after Rezaian's release from an Iranian prison where he was held for a year and a half, very shortly after being interviewed in Iran by Anthony Bourdain for his CNN travel foodamentary for the3 "Parts Unknown" series.
It was disconcerting to see Rezaian extolling the beauty of Iran over dinner, with his wife beside him and realizing it was probably dangerous and then find out he was arrested not long after that. He has dual citizenship, and he was fairly quickly thrown into jail for 'spying' activities which is almost surely bunk. His release was as as part of the recent prisoner swap. Rezaian's wife, released months earlier from jail, was scheduled to have her own trial there in a few months, but she (no surprise!) came back to the U.S. with him, though some monitors tried to stop her from joining him.
I think he was mainly the Iranian government's ace in the hole - a big bargaining chip for them.
Glad he got back, and I hope he doesn't go back soon. What a nightmare.
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So, we've seen JB go from the guy who sells books in his garage to the guy who now owns The Washington Post and gets involved in international politics when not involved with rockets or drones.
(Additional info for blog entry: Jason Rezian's statement Jan 20 after he arrived in Germany, freed finally from the unexpected ordeal in Iran.)
